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Urban Agriculture Ordinance

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Urban Agriculture Ordinance Photo: Earthworks Urban Farm, a project of Capuchin Soup Kitchen DETROIT‘S URBAN AGRICULTURE ORDINANCE DETROIT’S URBAN AGRICULTURE ORDI- NANCE REQUIRED THE CITY OF DETROIT TO NEGOTIATE OVER STATE-LEVEL LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORKS, IN WHICH THE LARGE-SCALE FARMING INTERESTS Detroit HAD A MAJOR STAKE, SO AS TO HAVE THE UNITED STATES AUTHORITY TO DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT ITS ORDINANCE. DETROIT’S EXPERIENCE ILLUS- TRATES THE PIVOTAL ROLE PLAYED BY INDIVIDU- ALS WITH LEGITIMACY IN BOTH PLANNING POLICY CIRCLES AND THE FOOD GROWING COMMUNITY, AS WELL AS THE NECESSITY OF ALTERING THE POLICY PROCESS TO ENABLE PARTICIPATION OF ACTORS WITH DIVERGENT VIEWS. 62 CASE STUDIES 01 WHAT MAKES URBAN FOOD POLICY HAPPEN? DETROIT In the second half of the 20th century, the City tively with swathes of vacant publicly-owned of Detroit in the US state of Michigan experi- land and abandoned lots. The culmination of a enced severe economic and social decline. The fnancial crisis that had efectively been brew- protracted collapse of the motor industry from ing65 for 60 years came in 2013 when Detroit, the late 1950s onwards disproportionally im- then under emergency administration and pacted the city’s African-American residents, $20 billion in debt, fled for bankruptcy; it ex- who were already sufering severe discrimi- ited bankruptcy in December 2014, leaving city nation via segregation and housing policies. leaders in charge of a long-term restructuring Racial unrest subsequently rose, culminating process. in the race riots of 1967. Many afuent white residents fed the violence, resulting in home Within the context of long-term social and eco- and business foreclosures — including the nomic struggle, a community farming movement shuttering of food retailers. By the 2000s, De- has taken root in the city’s neglected, mainly Af- troit’s population had decreased from around rican-American, neighbourhoods, and prolifer- 2 million to less than 700,000 (U.S. Census Bu- ated since the early 2000s66 (White, 2011). The reau, 2010) and every major chain supermar- movement has aimed to use farming as a means ket grocery store in the city had closed (Zenk to improve the urban environment, foster social et al., 2005; Smith & Hurst, 2007). Vast areas cohesion, and increase access to healthy food. of city land became vacant, the blighted urban With 35 square miles of vacant city-owned land, environment bred crime, and the city’s remain- there is huge potential for food production proj- ing predominantly black residents sufered ects of all kinds and sizes. disproportionally high rates of unemployment, diet-related disease, food insecurity, and other City policy has played a role in supporting ur- injustices including, ultimately, lower life ex- ban farming in Detroit. First, in 2008 the City of pectancy (Gallagher, 2007). Detroit adopted a food security policy drawn up by the Detroit Black Community Food Secu- With fewer tax-paying residents, Detroit has rity Network67 that featured urban agriculture been starved of revenues and has struggled to as one of eight work areas towards ensuring maintain social services — let alone deal efec- food security for all residents68, in the context 85. Detroit’s fortunes were slightly more positive between 1994 and 2001, during a bout of urban revival under then-Mayor Dennis Archer. 86. Detroit has a long history of food growing. In the 1890s the ‘Potato Patch Plan’ sought to put poor residents to work growing food in vacant lots (Levenston, n.d.); and between 1975 and 2002 the City operated the Farm-A-Lot scheme, which provided residents with seeds and access to publicly-owned lots on which to grow them (Greenbaum, 2014). Since Farm-A-Lot ended, Keep Growing Detroit’s Garden Resource Program grew from supporting 80 gardens in 2004 to 1400 gardens and farms in 2015 (Sands, 2015). 67. The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network is a not-for-proft organization established in 2006 to address food insecurity within the City’s Black community and to ensure that the majority African American population participates in and leads the food movement locally. It was the frst African American organization of its kind in the US. Its leader, Malik Yakini, is a widely respected activist who helped create the Detroit Food Policy Council and was its frst Chair. 68. The other seven work areas in the food security policy are: access to quality food; hunger and malnutrition; impacts/efects of an inadequate diet; citizen education; economic injustice in the food system; the role of schools and other public institutions; and emergency response. The policy also recommended the formation of the Detroit Food Policy Council, a monitoring and advisory body that was duly created in 2009, with 21 members from across the food system and city government (from the Mayor’s Ofce, City Council, and the Department of Health and Wellness Promotion). CASE STUDIES 01 WHAT MAKES URBAN FOOD POLICY HAPPEN? 63 DETROIT FIGURE 9 – AVAILABILITY OF PUBLIC LAND IN DETROIT 71,836 properties surveyed STRUCTURES VS LOTS STRUCTURE CONDITION STRUCTURE OCCUPANCY Good : 5,759 Possibly occupied : 785 Fair : 4,698 Partially occupied : 12 Structures : 15,975 Structures : 3,734 Occupied : 3,853 Lots : 55,850 Suggested demolition : 1,763 Unoccupied : 11,312 Source: www.motorcitymapping.org, 2017 of poor neighbourhood access to fresh, unpro- priority for all city stakeholders to seek to re- cessed foods, and high rates of hunger, obe- verse the decline and usher in stability through sity and diet-related illness69 (DBCFSN, 2008). economic revival, addressing land use issues, Then, in 2012, the Detroit City Plan was updat- improving city services, and fostering civic en- ed to feature urban agriculture as a desirable gagement (DEGC, 2012). Lastly, in 2013 the City activity, acknowledging the environmental, adopted its frst ever urban agriculture zoning economic and social benefts. Urban agricul- ordinance71, thereby formally permitting, pro- ture also features in the 2013 Detroit Future moting and regulating certain types of food City Strategic Framework70, which makes it a production as a viable land use. 69. The food security policy acknowledged at the most accessible stores in the city were party stores, dollar stores, fast food restaurants and gas stations. While most neighbourhoods had a grocery store within reasonable distance, they tended to stock very limited quality fresh, unprocessed foods — and many people could not reach stores selling healthier foods due to lack of a car and poor public transportation (DBCFSN, 2008). 70. Development of the Detroit Future City Strategic Framework was led by the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, a non-proft organization that works closely with the City of Detroit and other partners. Implementation is driven by the DFC Implementation Ofce, an independent non-proft organization governed by a board of directors and funded by the Kresge Foundation, Erb Family Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Michigan State Housing Development Authority and Americana Foundation. 71. A second ordinance on raising livestock within the city has been drafted and is expected to be adopted in 2017. 64 CASE STUDIES 01 WHAT MAKES URBAN FOOD POLICY HAPPEN? DETROIT The adoption of the urban agriculture or- The ordinance provides defnitions for key ur- dinance was of key signifcance because al- ban agriculture terms and determines whether though vegetable growing in the city was not each can be practiced by default (‘by right’, i.e. illegal prior to 201372, neither was it a recog- only requiring a permit) or with special permis- nized land use within the city’s existing zoning sion (‘conditional’, requiring more extensive ordinances. This meant it was not possible site review). Activities that are generally al- for the City to sell vacant public land for food lowed, either by right or conditionally, include growing purposes. With no regulatory frame- urban gardens (under one acre, for personal, work, there was no way of knowing whether commercial or group use), urban farms (over produce was safe or laced with heavy metals one acre for personal, commercial or group from contaminated soil, and there was no ba- use), greenhouses, and hoophouses. Farmers’ sis for arbitrating in disputes between farm- markets, hydroponics, aquaponics and aqua- ers and non-farming neighbours. Moreover, culture are generally prohibited in residential as urban agriculture gained momentum in areas, but may be permitted in some, either ‘by the 2000s across the US, some afuent, white right’ or on a ‘conditional’ basis. people were returning to the city to farm, in some cases seeking to acquire public land to The ordinance also contains clauses on nuisance establish for-proft enterprises. Often they ne- caused by urban farming and the procedures for glected to consult — or even consider — the establishing a new food growing initiative. predominantly black residents who had devel- oped their own visions for land use. There was This case study examines the processes that a clear need for formal procedures to ensure paved the way for Detroit’s frst urban agricul- equitable and just farming for all interested ture ordinance, the policy development pro- parties (Morrell, forthcoming). cess, and implementation to date. It shows how Detroit was able to overcome the institu- tional barrier of the Michigan Right to Farm Act I think urban agriculture is regarded not to have authority over urban agriculture — yet as real agriculture but more of a kind of implementation has been hampered by en- soft community based activity and [is] not trenched perceptions, distrust and lack of un- taken seriously yet as a viable means of derstanding, both within the city government production and an economic driver. And and the farming community. I think that’s because we haven’t go!en there yet. And we are still trying to. There THE NEED TO REGULATE URBAN AGRI- are a few, but very few, who are engaged CULTURE IN DETROIT in urban agriculture and able to do it for a living.
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